Elon Musk, in the wake of the Twitter buyout, was in the spotlight and a barrage of tweets from outraged progressives, mostly members of the Democratic party, went into battle against him and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was no exception.
Musk responded to Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet, which criticized him after the Twitter buyout, on the evening of April 29.
The representative, a New York Democrat, wrote:
“Tired of having to collectively stress about what explosion of hate crimes is happening bc some billionaire with an ego problem unilaterally controls a massive communication platform and skews it because Tucker Carlson or Peter Thiel took him to dinner and made him feel special.”
Tired of having to collectively stress about what explosion of hate crimes is happening bc some billionaire with an ego problem unilaterally controls a massive communication platform and skews it because Tucker Carlson or Peter Thiel took him to dinner and made him feel special
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 29, 2022
To which the Tesla Ceo responded:
“Stop hitting on me, I’m really shy,” and added a blushing emoji.
Stop hitting on me, I’m really shy ☺️
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2022
Ocasio-Cortez responded to Musk: “I was talking about Zuckerberg, but okay.”
🤷🏽♀️ like I said, ego problems https://t.co/IpyCkMadP8
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 30, 2022
However, almost a minute later she deleted the tweet, according to ProPublica which tracks deleted tweets from politicians, Fox News reported.
The congresswoman attempted, in a tweet, to explain to a user why she deleted the tweet:
“I try to avoid giving people with huge ego complexes, like these, the attention and questions/answers they crave and seek.”
I try to avoid giving people with massive ego complexes like this the attention and QTs/replies they crave and are seeking (when I can help it 😉)
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 30, 2022
Another comment from Musk, which also allegedly generated pushback from Democrats, on April 28, he shared a meme, about how he saw himself in the center of politics. The picture shows that he has moved from the center-left to the conservative center, apparently because many left liberals have become so extreme in their views.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2022
The billionaire’s announcements about the need for free speech on the social network, removing bots for “harmful content” or misinformation led to an alleged algorithm change that saw some conservative users swell in followers, while famous Democrats and progressives saw a sharp drop in their follower numbers, the Daily Mail reported.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has gained about 400,000 new followers since April 26.
While Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s follower numbers dropped by more than 15,000 as of April 26.
Separately, Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson praised Musk for the Twitter acquisition, Breitbart reported.
“Unlike the leaders of Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, Elon Musk believes in free speech. He thinks everyone should be able to talk, including people who disagree with him,” Carlson said.